Driving Through the Countryside...

...and I hate it.

My boss decided the other day that he didn't like being limited to only one driver in the office. Apparently he's concerned that asking for other offices to support us with drivers when needed is going to somehow impair our ability to tour the countryside and waste people's time. More on that later.

The other day I made another trip up to Bagram Air Base. It was a clear day after some heavy snow and made for some interesting scenery. Of course, as always, it also meant that there was no shortage of people just sitting or standing around out in the middle of nowhere.







They weren't all just standing around. Some of them had actually found things to do. For example, there were plenty of kids playing in the middle of the highway:

Many of them were also out there with shovels putting dirt into the potholes in the hopes that some passer-by might toss them a few coins or some drinking water for their efforts.

Then there was this group of industrious Afghan roofers:

And these folks carrying or dragging their wares into town:


Along the way we also passed a few construction sites:

All of which were usually in close proximity to ruins:


And while the drive was uneventful enough, I still say that I am not at all comfortable with driving around in Afghanistan:


For some reason I don't think my few months per year spent driving a tiny sports car around Northern California's wine country are quite enough to prepare me for driving an unarmed, top-heavy, up-armored SUV around in a snow-covered, mine-laden, combat zone. Our drivers are all given months of training behind the wheel of a combat vehicle before being deployed here to do this job.

I am increasingly in the wrong damned place.